


Sacrifice

by TheRedPoet



Category: RWBY
Genre: Depressive as shit, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-18
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-13 15:54:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3387593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRedPoet/pseuds/TheRedPoet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yang always knew the day would come.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> I've always been opposed to the grim-dark RWBY stories. I've felt they're really contradictory to what the show is about... So naturally, I decided to make my first toe dipped into the pool precisely that kind of fic. Oops.

Hunters and huntresses all learned sooner or later about the hazards of the trade. It wasn’t in the recruitment pamphlets, but it was not a secret either. One day, sooner or later, they were going to die. The trick was to make it count. To make sure that on the day you died, you could do it with a smile on your face.

Yang had seen Ruby the first time when she was six. Uncle Qrow had arrived with a little red bundle, which turned out to be an oversize cloak and an undersized four year old girl. He’d exchanged terse words with her father and left soon after.

Yang had been too young to understand the pain in his voice, then and too wrapped up in the girl who she was told was her little sister. Half sister, whatever. It didn’t matter to her then and it never would.  
From the moment she saw her sleeping form, Yang loved her.

When she almost got Ruby killed in pursuit of her mother, she swore that she’d never let her sister come to harm again and that’d she’d pay the price – any price – to make that happen. 

She applied to Signal as soon as she was old enough and never looked back. She would become a huntress and protect her sister and as many others as she could. Things didn’t go quite as planned, of course. They never really do. Ruby didn’t just follow in Yang’s footsteps, the silly little idiot, but she proved herself a prodigious talent at Signal. Yang was proud, but scared too. She was well aware at this point of the risks their future careers entailed and had to admit to herself that she’d half hoped Ruby would failed and dropped out.

At Beacon, her sister bloomed as the leader of team RWBY. She made friends, grew up, fought bad guys, and unless Yang was misreading things between her and Weiss, was falling in love.

She really wished she could’ve been there to see her graduate, but she wouldn’t. They’d found Torchwick and his cronies, but they hadn’t managed to stop them and the monsters were pouring towards Vale through the tunnels.

Weiss had kept them alive, but their auras were all low and they were hopelessly outnumbered. She could see the calculation in her sister’s eyes, their odds of survival and what would happen if they ran. When Ruby’s jaw set in determination and she steered her steps towards the hole blasted open by the train, Yang knew on some level that it was time.

-

The sun was climbing on the horizon, which was nice because she was beginning to get cold.

“It’s okay,” Yang mumbled weakly. She wanted to reach out and wipe the tears of Ruby’s cheeks, but her arms just wouldn’t cooperate. “Blake and Weiss are gonna take care of ya. Don’t worry.”

Ruby’s response is almost incomprehensible under her choking sobs, but Yang got the gist of it.

“Love you too, Rubes.”

Reinforcements had arrived and the battle was coming to a close. She’d done her job – a good thing too, because she was getting really tired.

Her eyelids were starting to feel heavy and it was becoming a struggle to keep them open. Yang smiled up at her Ruby as she began to slip away. Her little sister was safe and that was all that mattered.


End file.
